Impact of event tourism on quality of life of consumers in developing countries: A review of concepts, methods, issues, evidence and future research directions

Abstract

Events are being used to a large extent to market tourism destinations. Stakeholders in event tourism include the organizers, government, tourists and residents. In developing countries the government is concerned with improving the quality of life of its citizens. Residents are involved with events in different capacities like volunteers, participants, suppliers, business etc. A tourism event definitely impacts the Quality of life of residents. Research concerning 'Event tourism' has undergone different phases from assessing the economic impact of events in 1970s and 1980s to how residents perceive the impact of these events in recent years. This paper seeks to present comprehensive review of the earlier research in these concepts and further wishes to add a premise that the position of the event in the life cycle could have differing impacts on quality of life of various stakeholders. It embeds different classes of events and their respective positions in life cycle that could have differing impacts on classes of stakeholders among residents. This, in turn, could impact their quality of life in varying degree and thus merit judgment on the efficacy of the events held and their contributions. This paper suggests a future direction for quantitative research on the impact of different types of events on quality of life of residents in developing countries. The implications would be reflected in effective allocation of resources for promotions of these events.